


i'll be your fifty thousand clapping like one

by Uncontinuous (nights_fang)



Series: everything is changing but I think I love it now [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-07 03:04:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18401798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nights_fang/pseuds/Uncontinuous
Summary: “No, no, absolutely not.” Vanya says to the four teenagers standing in front of her.Vanya’s first so called gig, is (un)fortunately not her playing with the Icarus Orchestra.Or the one where Vanya’s kids con her into playing a gig with one of them.





	i'll be your fifty thousand clapping like one

**Author's Note:**

> This was also supposed to be serious fic but I’ve tried to write the fic that comes before this several times before just giving up. So, all you need to know is, Sonya’s also living with Vanya now. One day I’ll actually write the fic to elaborate, but the gist of it is: Sonya’s a foster kid in a bad situation, walked in for classes with bruises (that she missed covering with makeup). The only reason Vanya’s not in jail was because she got more busy going 'my kid now' and keeping Sonya forever, because “This is your home now, you’re grounded and you will receive all the love and affection in the world as your punishment.”

It starts like this:

There is a club, the tiny artsy hipster college kind, that does a lot of performances and small gigs and open mics and other events. The typical kind for small just starting out entertainers or college kids wanting to goof off. Vanessa and Kiera want to go for an event – Vanya is sure it’s a dance thing. Kiera takes her dancing seriously. Neither girl is sure that their parents will be okay with it so they want Vanya to convince their parents for them. Meaning: they want Vanya to volunteer to chaperone them. Vanya gets along with both of said girls parents that they trust her (she’s still letting that sink in, people trust Vanya with their kids). And well both girls are trying to have fun, _responsibly_. They could just sneak out like Vanya’s siblings used too, and their parents would be none the wiser. Keira and Vanessa were always sneaky when they want to be, but since they’ve befriended each other it’s _mutated_. But instead here they are, choosing to ask instead.

Vanya agrees, their parents agree, and somehow Nisha gets dragged into it, and Vanya makes Sonya tag along because she’s been cooped up in Vanya’s apartment ever since she moved in and needs to live a little like the teenager she _is_ instead of trying valiantly to become a fifties Stepford housewife. (Vanya has long decided that even if Mom finds her way out of the house, she is just going to push Sonya at her and watch the show. She won't even need to get popcorn because they'd _make_ it for her.) It’s even nice. Vanessa and Kiera are caught up in the music, going off to dance and coming back happy and flushed for short breaks. Nisha is only mildly acidic in her criticism, and Sonya is giggling. Vanya zones out, only checking back in occasionally to make sure there’s no one acting like an asshole with the girls and that there’s no alcohol on the table.

(Which is probably why she misses Kiera and Vanessa coming back to their table with _the flyer_ , and the conspirational looks all four girls share once Sonya and Nisha peek at it.)

This is where it starts. Or at least Vanya hopes it’s where it starts. But, in hindsight, she won’t put it past the hellions to have preplanned this trip too.

 

* * *

 

The flyer, as Vanya sees next morning when she comes into the kitchen for coffee, is pinned to the board she keeps next to the fridge for various notes (something she had to buy to stop her fridge door from being overtaken by notes and post-its). She only actually looks at it once a mug of coffee is securely in her hand and she’s had a few sips for her brain to start functioning.

It’s for another event, two months from now. Vanessa’s messy handwriting ‘Curtis????’ written and circled multiple times. Pinned next to it is a post-it with Nisha’s neat cursive going ‘POA to get Curtis to perform. V you have to help.’

Vanya snorts because she knows the circus of shenanigans this will devolve into. These kids love doing this kind of shit. Matthew’s grandparents anniversary and the resulting war between _tuxedo_ vs traditional _sherwani_ comes to mind. It ended in Ezekiel and Jacob getting into a yelling match that thankfully stopped before one of her neighbours called the cops because Jasmine had a headache and threw a cushion at them.

Vanya’s carefully not going to be a part of any of this new mission, unless it’s getting too much and she needs to pull one of them back. Besides, it’s not an entirely _bad_ idea. Curtis is _great_ at both the violin and his poetry – whatever they sign him up for. Vanya’s had the privilege of listening to both. He deserves to be famous. Except for his stage fright making him blank out. The café is small and cozy enough that it could put Curtis at ease the way he is in her living room instead of exacerbating the problem. Just… if it was her she’d just _tell_ Curtis and let him choose instead of trying to come up with zany plans that end up telling Curtis anyway. But then again… _teenagers_.

Ezekiel comes in moments later blearily rubbing his eyes, sees the note, and spends far too much time in front of the board staring at it to actually be thinking of a plan. Or even have processed any of it probably. Not at this time in the morning anyway. He’s most likely had another nightmare. She hasn’t been able to stay with him all the time since Sonya moved in too.

She isn’t even done with a third of the coffee in her mug, she thinks sadly.

“All right kiddo, come on, back to bed with you,” she says grabbing Ezekiel’s arm and tugging him back towards the couch to tuck him back in. There’s room for only one sleep deprived person in this apartment and she’s not letting any teenager take that spot from her.

(She misses the thumbs up Ezekiel sneaks at Sonya peeking out of her bedroom door.)

 

* * *

 

Predictably the plan spreads. Vanya’s long given up on knowing how. (Magic and determination for gossip and shenanigans is her two guesses.) All that matters is that it does. And as always, Vanya’s living room is the meeting place for further discussions, while Vanya deliberately moves only between her room (still off limits) and the kitchen emanating a “do not involve me” vibe.

She’s going to give them a week to come up with something before she tells Curtis herself. Curtis picks up on things fast, and there’s no way he’ll not notice the sudden meetings excluding him. And Vanya sees enough of herself in Curtis to know where his mind will take him, how he’ll conclude that it’s because he’s not wanted. He doesn’t need that kind of heartbreak. Especially since it’s not even true, because unlike Seven's childhood, these kids _love_ Curtis.

Curtis almost finds out anyway because he, like all of Vanya’s kids, walks in on them. He takes it like a champ, falls for their excuses easily without that tell-tale hunch of his shoulders that would say otherwise. And honestly, _that_ should be the biggest giveaway.

 

* * *

 

“You know,” she says two days in Curtis almost catching them, over a sip of hot tea (her stock of coffee is unfortunately emptied out and she forgot to buy more) and curled up in her armchair with a lapful of cat, breaking her own self-imposed rule. This whole planning thing is just getting sad now, and it’s been such a near miss with Curtis. She’d like to avoid another. Who knows whether they’ll be lucky next time? Who knows whether they already _are_. Curtis seems fine, but he’s also the kind to bottle up things with a sort of quiet resignation. “You guys need to have a backup plan too. And you’ll have a better time convincing him if he knew he wasn’t going on the stage alone.”

Because might as well get two kids in there instead of one. Maybe Sonya? She and Curtis play well of each other. So does Jasmine.

She misses the way Jacob and Vanessa fistbump under the table, misses Ezekiel’s amused huff. She doesn’t miss Nisha’s grin, sharklike and Cheshire-cat-who-got-the-cream all at once, “Funny thing Ms V, we were all thinking the same thing...”

Oh no.

Oh fuck. Vanya knows _exactly_ where this is going.

“… Who better than you?”

Oh fuck no.

Why did Vanya even _open_ her mouth?

 

* * *

 

“No, no, absolutely _not_.” Vanya says to the four teenagers standing in front of her.

As a child, whenever Seven wanted something (which honestly all the time was just to be a part of her siblings) she’d ask her father, and he’d simply say _No_ and that would be it. On the days she was feeling particularly brave, she’d try pestering him. Except that rarely worked. It wasn’t _just_ her, the same things applied to her siblings too. And with the way things worked in the Academy, “No” was “No” unless you were Five who’d simply run away into time, or Four who, to quote her sibling, “ _had long run out of fucks to give for dear old daddy’s rules_ ”. _He’d_ run off the day after Ben’s funeral, which unfortunately wasn’t too long after Five ran off.

But the thing is, Vanya’s grown up on “No” and it staying that way no matter what argument she made or how much she pleaded. Hell Vanya could’ve probably found a way to blow up the moon and her father would give her a minus 2 and call it ordinary because Two found a way to throw a dagger _just_ right to explode Jupiter and it’s moons, and One could destroy the solar system, and Three Rumored a Black Hole into devouring a nearby galaxy _last week_. Four, Five, and Six _were_ Black Holes if they only lived up to some of their potential, and so on.

And yet none of them found a way to figure out which fucking alien planet their father came from and hurl him back at it, so….

Okay maybe Vanya’s still a little bitter about everything after all this time. Old hurts don’t go away that quickly and she _is_ getting better. One day at a time. The longer she’s away from that Academy.

But getting back to the thing at hand before she took that long detour into just really frankly sad places, Vanya is used to No meaning No. Sure, she doesn’t say it the way Reginald did, but she does picture him when saying it and sort of has the same effect because people take it at face value. And it _does_ work for her. Did…

Sometimes still does?

She hopes?

The four teenagers in front of her have still not given in. She’s been saying no for more than an hour now. Even worse, they’ve brought out the puppy dog eyes.

And well Vanya gives in to them a lot. A whole lot. See: them invading her life, and eating her food, and leaving their laundry for her, and her teaching them covers for their favourite songs, and each having spare keys to her place (she’s still trying to figure out _how_ that happened even though she’d resigned herself too it – not for any other reason than she may have been the ordinary kid in the Umbrella Academy but certain things have been instilled in her and if kids can find her spare keys then who else could?) and her still not saying anything. So, she feels justified in putting her foot down for _once_.

Really, she is.

She’s not even sure why she has to be even be a part of this. _This was about Curtis_.

Vanessa’s lips begin to quiver, and nope. _Nope_. While Vanya is firm on this one thing, she’s also a coward so she does the smart thing and flees to her room.

 

* * *

 

The thing is while she can escape into her room, and they will – thankfully – still respect that, she can’t escape _them_.

Even if Ezekiel and Sonya didn’t live with her, she still has a good number of teenagers spending the night at her place most days. She has a good number of teenagers in her house at all times. Vanya has never hated being deemed trustworthy by parents more than she currently does. Damn her bleeding heart for willing to help out these hellions.

Nisha writes dissertations worth of notes on why it’s a good idea for her to perform with Curtis and slips it under her door. Matthew flirts at her through her bedroom door promising dates and okay that makes Vanya laugh more than anything. Jacob actually sings godawful country songs outside her bedroom door to irritate her into opening it so that Jasmine can tug her out for everyone to tell her why she should perform with Curtis. Ezekiel and Sonya have tag-teamed to give her the biggest saddest most pleading puppy dog eyes the moment she leaves her room when no one stays over. They follow her everywhere in the house. ( _Woohoo adopted siblinghood_ she hears Ezekiel crow every time she runs away.) Then, they get Cassandra in on it too because Vanya didn’t have _enough_ to deal with.

 

* * *

 

“You don’t want to perform with me?” Curtis asks. Big, shy, hiding away from the world by hunching in on himself the way Seven used to hide behind her bangs when Reginald called her ordinary and told her not to be a distraction or bad example for her siblings.

And this is unfair. This is a low blow. This is playing _dirty_. Why the fuck did they involve Curtis. They _can’t_ do this to her.

Fuck it. Fuck it, royally. _Fine_.

“Curtis, I want you to believe that I mean this with every fibre of my being when I say this. It would be an _honour_. You are brilliant, and amazing. There is nothing more I would _love_ to do than perform with you.”

“Oh,” he says like he can’t believe it. Like he still can’t understand that Vanya is _genuinely fond_ of him. That she _believes_ in his talents. That she means every single word she says to him, and they’re not just empty compliments. There is an amazing talented performer in there and Vanya resolves for the umpteenth time, to drag him out of the hunched shy shell Curtis keeps himself in.

“Come on, show me what you need me to do.”

 

* * *

 

Vanessa and Ellie make them dress in matching outfits. Well _Vanessa_ dresses them, and makes them look more like a KPop idol lite group. Ellie sees their discomfort and tames it to something that they’d actually wear, while Cassie distracts Vanessa. Curtis’ mom comes too, taking the night off – Vanya wonders how she managed it – armed with a camera to record the whole thing.

Curtis performs like a champ. Even finds the courage to do a solo act. Gets a resounding amount of clapping and cheering all led by Ezekiel and Spencer.

Curtis’ mother cries. Vanya cries.

Then Nisha signs up Vanya to play again, this time with Vanessa in two weeks.

 

* * *

 


End file.
